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Can People Sell their Children into Slavery? Cultural Relativism vs. Universality in Islamic Jurisprudence

Can People Sell their Children into Slavery? Cultural Relativism vs. Universality in Islamic Jurisprudence

In Summer 2023, the TraSIS project organised a joint conference with the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) in the picturesque Swiss lakeside town of Murtensee. Some of our guests generously agreed to contribute a blog post in which they discuss one of the sources they presented on at the conference. In the third post of this series, Jonathan AC Brown, Chair of Islamic Civilization at Georgetown University, explores the sale of non-Muslim children into slavery in Islamic…

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The Blurred Boundaries of Slavery and Freedom in the Early Modern Crimean Khanate

The Blurred Boundaries of Slavery and Freedom in the Early Modern Crimean Khanate

In Summer 2023, the TraSIS project organised a joint conference with the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) in the picturesque Swiss lakeside town of Murtensee. Some of our guests generously agreed to contribute a blog post in which they discuss one of the sources they presented on at the conference. In the second post of this series, Turkana Allahverdiyeva, a doctoral student at the BCDSS, discusses a case of non-elite household slavery in the early modern Crimean…

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From Muslim Slave to Catholic Surgeon: A Case of Manumission in the Galleys of Spain

From Muslim Slave to Catholic Surgeon: A Case of Manumission in the Galleys of Spain

In Summer 2023, the TraSIS project organised a joint conference with the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) in the picturesque Swiss lakeside town of Murtensee. Some of our guests generously agreed to contribute a blog post in which they discuss one of the sources they presented on at the conference. In the first post of this series, Teresa Peláez-Domínguez, a doctoral researcher at the University of Valencia, introduces us to the world of galley slavery in the Early…

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What Can We Learn about Slavery from a Manual for Judges and Notaries?

What Can We Learn about Slavery from a Manual for Judges and Notaries?

Serena Tolino is Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and co-director of the Institute for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Societies at the University of Bern, where she also leads the project TraSIS.We recommend that readers explore our other blog contributions which are linked here Introduction This month’s blog post focuses on the relevance that shurūṭ manuals written for judges and notaries have for understanding practices related to slavery, and legal practices more generally. Shurūṭ works, or “model…

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On the “Guile” of Slaves: Thirteen Recommendations of Samawʾal b. Yaḥyā al-Maghribī (d. 570/1175) on the Purchase of Male and Female Slaves

On the “Guile” of Slaves: Thirteen Recommendations of Samawʾal b. Yaḥyā al-Maghribī (d. 570/1175) on the Purchase of Male and Female Slaves

Aurora Magliozzi is a PhD student at the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies at the University of Naples L’Orientale. She is also an associate researcher at the Institute for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Societies (ISNO) at the University of Bern. Her research focuses on Arabic erotic literature in the classical and post-classical periods. This is the first guest post on the TraSIS blog. We recommend that readers explore our other blog contributions which are…

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The Sins of the Father: Theodicy, Salvation and the Enslavement of Children in Some Kalām Texts

The Sins of the Father: Theodicy, Salvation and the Enslavement of Children in Some Kalām Texts

Dr Omar Anchassi, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bern on the SSC-funded Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies (TraSIS) project.We recommend that readers explore our other blog contributions which are linked here. Content warning: this blog post discusses issues of a highly sensitive nature, including the suffering of children (this- and otherworldly). Reader discretion is advised. This month’s blog post departs from previous contributions by exploring a series of closely interrelated legal and theological questions in the longue durée, rather…

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The Standard Unified Contract for Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon — Recognition of Rights and Responsibilities or Facilitation of ‘Modern Slavery’?

The Standard Unified Contract for Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon — Recognition of Rights and Responsibilities or Facilitation of ‘Modern Slavery’?

Laura Rowitz is a PhD candidate at the University of Bern, where she conducts her research in the TraSIS team.We recommend that readers explore our other blog contributions which are linked here. Please note that this source of the month is not related to slavery in the sense of the legal ownership of persons, as is commonly understood. We are, nevertheless, convinced that the perspective adopted in this post allows us to reflect on dependencies in the contemporary world that are not altogether unrelated. In 2020, a new Standard Unified Contract for…

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The Case of Najma Saʿīd Ismāʿīl: A ‘Proof of Ownership’ Document Issued by the Islamic State (2016)

The Case of Najma Saʿīd Ismāʿīl: A ‘Proof of Ownership’ Document Issued by the Islamic State (2016)

Laura Emunds is a PhD candidate at the University of Bern, where she conducts her research in the TraSIS team.We recommend that readers explore our other blog contributions which are linked here. Content note: the source discussed in this month’s blogpost originates from the context of the most recent genocide of the Yezidi people and speaks about the sale of a woman enslaved by the so-called Islamic State. This post therefore contains material of a sensitive nature, and reader discretion is…

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On Eunuchs: An Italian Medical Doctor’s View (Cairo, 1902)

On Eunuchs: An Italian Medical Doctor’s View (Cairo, 1902)

Serena Tolino is Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and co-director of the Institute for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Societies at the University of Bern, where she also leads the project TraSIS.We recommend that readers explore our other blog contributions which are linked here. Introduction The subject of this month’s blog post is not a “typical” source for our project, as it is not properly legal. It is a paper presented by an Italian medical doctor on…

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Legal and Theological Dimensions of Slavery in an Early Ibāḍī Text

Legal and Theological Dimensions of Slavery in an Early Ibāḍī Text

Dr Omar Anchassi, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bern on the SSC-funded Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies (TraSIS) project.We recommend that readers explore our other blog contributions which are linked here. Introduction The text translated below, edited by the prolific Abdulrahman al-Salimi, is excerpted from an epistle authored by the Ibāḍī qāḍī Abū ʿAlī Mūsā b. ʿAlī (d. 237/851) on behalf of the Omani Imam al-Muhannā b. Jayfar (r. 226/841-237/851) addressed to Muʿādh b. Ḥarb (d.?).[1] According to al-Salimi, the text…

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